I'm the one who re-titled the thread as an obit. We've had a long-standing policy of not having two threads on the same subject at the same time, so it didn't make sense to have a second thread for the obit. I know that some of you have a taboo against "speaking ill of the dead" in an obituary thread, but why?

If you're publishing a person's one-and-only official obituary and funeral announcement in a newspaper, then it's probably a civilized idea not to speak ill of the deceased. But in a forum like this, I think it's certainly appropriate to both mark the death and have an honest discussion of the deceased - all in the same thread.

But then I'm not into this demonization stuff, so I think it's important to maintain a certain amount of respect for every person, living or dead, no matter how vehemently one might disagree with that person.

So, there should be something at Mudcat to mark the death of this historically important person, and there should be an honest discussion of both good and bad about them. Why can't we do both in the same thread? Now, when the deceased is somebody that some of us have known and loved personally, that's a different matter. I would think it inappropriate to speak ill of that person in any thread (e.g., the Ruebsaat thread)

Please note that the thread originator put RIP on the thread title. How is that different from an obituary? I added "Obit" simply because "obit" is the word we use to index threads marking the death of notable people.

-Joe-